Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-33678

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on recent drug-related deaths in rural areas, including Aberdeenshire, and what steps it is taking to reduce these figures.

National Records of Scotland publish annual accredited official statistics on drug-related deaths in Scotland. The latest release, covering 2023, is available at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-in-2023/. The accompanying data file provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by both NHS board area and local authority area.

The Scottish Government publishes a quarterly report to provide an indication of current trends in suspected drug deaths in Scotland. The data in this report is operational information from Police Scotland who compile figures on the basis of reports from police officers attending scenes of death. This is management information and not subject to the same level of validation and quality assurance as Official Statistics. The latest release, covering July to September 2024, is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland-july-september-2024/. The accompanying data file provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the figures, including by Police Division.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to reducing drug deaths and harms. Through the National Mission we are seeing success across a wide range of actions designed to save lives and reduce harms. The total funding proposed for alcohol and drugs, including health board baseline funding, is over £150 million in 2025-26. This includes maintaining £112 million funding for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, continuing to fund grassroots organisations through £13m via the Corra Foundation, and supporting a wide range of activity - including supporting residential rehabilitation.

Question reference: S6W-33596

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects to have held the first meeting of the employment injury assistance steering group.

The Scottish Government is in the process of establishing a stakeholder group on Employment Injury Assistance which will be comprised of organisations and experts with experience of Industrial Injuries Scheme benefits.

Invitations for the Employment Injury Assistance Steering Group will be issued in the coming weeks. The first meeting will take place early this year, subject to members’ availability.

This group will take forward considerations raised in the consultation and provide valuable input for our ongoing work on Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33299

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether there have been any consequences for any of its officials as a result of any investigations into any leaking of ministerial statements or other information to the media, and, if so, what the consequences were.

Question reference: S6W-33862

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applications there have been each year for Marine Scotland Fund payments, broken down by applicant type.

Many applications do not proceed to assessment due to them either being withdrawn by the applicant or because they are identified as ineligible. No data is held on the numbers or types of these applications.

Of those eligible applications which are fully assessed the breakdown is in the following tables;

a) Successful applications

	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024	2024-2025	Totals
Aquaculture	10	5	9	13	37
Environment	3	7	8	15	33
Marketing	2	2	2	4	10
Seafood processing	19	18	19	10	66
Sea fisheries	80	24	42	9	155
Research & Innovation	6	4	11	16	37
Total	120	60	91	67

b) Unsuccessful applications

	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024	2024-2025	Totals
Aquaculture	0	1	6	5	12
Environment	0	0	1	1	2
Marketing	0	0	4	0	4
Seafood Processing	1	4	3	8	16
Sea Fisheries	9	18	23	21	71
Research & Innovation	1	0	7	4	12
Total	11		44	39

Question reference: S6W-33898

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy.

Question reference: S6W-33768

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any audits have been conducted on the use of government-issued mobile phones, and what the outcomes of any such audits were.

Question reference: S6W-33759

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile phones it has purchased for use as government-issued devices in each of the last five years, and what the total cost was.

Question reference: S6W-33769

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to upgrade or replace its current government-issued mobile phone inventory.

Question reference: S6W-33763

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to government-issued mobile phones, how much mobile data has been used by its departments in each of the last five years, and what the associated costs were.

The mobile data used in terabytes (Tb) on the Scottish Government’s account as part of our mobile voice and data contracts is shown below. This data is only available from August 2020, it is not possible to separate the associated mobile data costs by department from the overall spend.

January 2024 to December 2024 - 82.59Tb

January 2023 to December 2023 - 94.87Tb

January 2022 to December 2022 - 97.77Tb

January 2021 to December 2021 - 125.07Tb

July 2020 to December 2020 - 39.99Tb

Question reference: S6W-33721

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent analysis it has undertaken of any time savings for clinical staff as a result of any improvements to medical record systems.